Reading this story made me want to read all of Lynda Barry’s work. It’s the perfect starter and one would surely be looking for more. I didn’t understand it much at first but after researching some of the words, I found it really hilarious. It’s so natural and so unscripted. We talk in the house just like the family in the cartoon. I guess being able to relate so much to the story makes it even more interesting for me.
The topic of the story is so trivial, smell. But it’s something that I’m sure most people think about too. It’s something that I notice a lot but don’t take the time to really think about. But it’s so true and so real. Our rooms have their own distinct smell. Even our lockers in school smell differently from one another too. It’s funny because I also used to conclude about what kind of people they are and how they live their lives based on how their lockers smell. Sweat-smelling lockers are those of the varsities, lockers that smell like a new book are usually occupied by the studious ones and lockers who smell like loose powder and lipstick are for the Barbie dolls in school. Reading this brought back a lot of memories and they make me smile.
But I guess this story also has something else to it than humor. I guess it also shows how people in a very diverse community are, through the eyes of a child. The boy in the story, and so are the other characters in the story, was very observant and was also drawing out conclusions about his neighbors with the way their houses smell. He talked to his Filipino grandmother and she was talking about dirty things in front of him, in combined English-Filipino. I just think the grandmother’s view of things and the way she reasoned out was very cool and casual.
This one’s a really good read. The way the cartoon was drawn, the colors, the characters, and the dialogues, are all so realistic and adorable. This one’s very humorous and entertaining.
Works Cited
- Barry, Lynda. One Hundred Demons: Common Scents. Retrieved 5 December 2006, from <http://archive.salon.com/mwt/comics/barry/2000/07/14/barry/index.html?x>
